Over the course of their careers, Jensen Mini Farm owners Jeff and Lory Jensen have seen a lot, but the couple admitted that they were both at a loss after finding 10 of their cows dead on June 28.
“It was raining so much that day that everything was just hunkered under trees and things, and we didn’t think much of anything,” Jeff Jensen told Tualatin Life about the couple’s cows on the night of the incident. “The next morning we’re getting up and getting ready for farmer’s markets and the landlord there was like ‘Hey, the cows are being a little louder than normal.’”
The Jensens lease a pasture in West Linn and Jeff Jensen explained that on June 28, the day after the storm, he drove out to the acreage and found five of his cows and five calves lying dead underneath a tree that had been hit by lightning.
“He called me and said, ‘Not gonna make it to the market, there’s a bit of a mess,’” Lory Jensen recounted.
Jeff Jensen said that he found the cattle stacked in a pile and realized the abnormally loud cow his landlord was calling him about was a mother mourning her lost calf.
“The cow that was distressed, that the landlord called about, she lost her calf,” Lory Jensen said.
Jeff Jensen explained that the situation was “not normal” and said he started looking for an explanation.
“It was cows on top of cows, not normal,” Jeff Jensen said. “I took some pictures, and in one of the pictures, Lory noticed the bark on the tree.”
When Lory Jensen noticed the possible traces of lightning on the trunk of the tree that the cows were under, she said she looked up the likelihood of cows being struck by lightning.
“I started researching, ‘what’s a cow death and lightning strike look like?’” Lory Jensen said. “And sure enough, a bunch of cows around a tree.”
While slightly more common in other parts of the country, lightning-related cattle deaths are a rare phenomenon, and the United States Department of Agriculture does not have a consistent number on record for occurrences per year in the United States.
“Our vet has been a vet for 20-something years, and he’s never seen it on this side of the state,” Lory Jensen said.
Stranger yet, the Jensens’ cows were not the only victims of the storm on Jun. 27. A man playing golf in West Linn was also struck that same afternoon, but lived.
Jeff Jensen said that the large quantity of cow casualties was a fluke for the farm, explaining that Jensen Mini Farm had never seen a loss like it since opening in 2018.
“It reduced 30% of our herd and half of our calf crop this year,” Jeff Jensen said. “Typically we don’t have losses on the farm, so for us this is a lot.”
The Jensens detailed the setback, explaining that the five calves that died were prepped to be prime stock in 2028 and that current cattle prices could become a large hurdle on the farm’s road to recovery.
“At the time we had nine calves on the ground, that was five of them,” Jeff Jensen said. “In today’s market, buying new calves is upwards of $2,000 for young calves…to find a replacement cow, even with a calf at her side, isn’t gonna perform as well as the genetics we’ve been developing.”
As of July 18, cattle prices were trending slightly downward, but still sat at an historic high.
The farm’s insurance is currently evaluating the damage done, and the Jensens said they still fear financial battles ahead, explaining that it cost them $3,500 to transport the dead cows to the rendering plant in Salem.
The Jensens said they were grateful to receive words of encouragement from their clients as well as from followers on social media and emphasized that they would continue working to build back their herd.
“A lot of folks have come by and expressed their condolences on the whole scenario, and we appreciate the support,” Lory Jensen said. “We’ll just look around for cows that we think match what we’re trying to do, start trying to build our herd back up.”
